To God be the Glory
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory.
Psalm 115:1
"God is too wise not to know what is really best for us, and He is too good not to give it.
Henry Parey Liddon
Boo thought:Election years bring concerns and anxiety and this year is certainly no different. God sees the big picture and also is the keeper of our days on this earth. He wants to give us good things. How his heart must ache for where we have chosen to go as a nation. I think I would have given the etcha-sketch a good shake and started over long ago, but God is patient not wanting any to perish.
God will get the glory he deserves and every knee will bow before Jesus. In the meantime, let's do our part to pray for our nation and our leaders to be pleasing in His sight.
Let's Pray: Lord, you are the ruler of the nations. The creature of the universe. Every year you send me a black and yellow butterfly to encourage me and she just showed up Father! As Your children, may we come out of our cocoons and spread our wings proclaiming Your love for us and have voices that speak up to keep our rights as believers in this nation. You are our hope and our ever present help in times of trouble! In Jesus Name, Amen
Psalm 114 & 115 from Psalms Now by Leslie Brandt
We fear, O God, for our country and the tragic indifference that is demonstrated toward You and Your purposes. We have built great sanctuaries and memorials in Your honor. We have established innumerable church bodies that presume to glorify and serve You. We have respectfully imprinted Your name on our coins and properly credited You in our founding principles. Our leaders generally call on You to guide them in the most critical decisions they must make. A remnant of our populace gathers occasionally to sing Your praises and profess its faith. There are even special days when we count our blessings and conduct services of thanksgiving.
But the sanctuaries we build do not always glorify You. They often become soundproof fortresses that block out the sounds of suffering that echo throughout the world around them. Our numerous church bodies turn into vain attempts to box You into human ideas and concepts of divinity.
The coins that bear Your name are dedicated to the pursuit of our selfish ambitions and the acquisition of material wealth. Our founding principles are interpreted to benefit the powerful and oppress the weak. Our laws sometimes contradict and oppose Your law in the consciences and convictions of Your children. Our leaders call on You to bless their intentions rather than to reveal Your plans in the way they govern. And those who do gather to sing Your praises are seldom committed to anyone or anything unless it is comfortable and convenient for their purposes.
And yet, O Lord, we pray that You will not give up on us. We have selfishly clutched at Your great blessings and abused the wealth You have put into our hands. We have gathered ourselves while countless millions of this world's creatures have died with their needs unfulfilled. We have foolishly ignored You to worship the things that have come from Your hands.
We confess our rebelliousness and selfishness, O Lord, and pray that You will spare us. Spare us that you might renew us and save us and use us to share Your blessings with Your human creatures in every land. You dealt mercifully with Your ungrateful children throughout history. We pray that You will deal patiently and lovingly with us, that You will transform our words into actions and our shallow platitudes into genuine praises that will glorify and serve You in all the world.
